Tracce geoarcheologiche di variazioni ambientali storiche sulla costa di Agropoli (Cilento, sud Italia)

Abstract

Geoarchaeologicai investigations along the littoral of S. Marco di Agropoli (Cilento, Southern Italy) and detailed archaeo-stratigraphical analyses on a succession cropping out in an excavation for building purposes have evidenced various oscillations of the shoreline occurred during the Roman period. Preliminary analyses of strati-graphical data suggest that, during its maximum transgression in the Holocene, the sea probably reached a position about 300 m inland with respect to the modern shore-line. About 3000 years BP, after a phase of climatic deterioration towards arid conditions, the beach advanced to a position rather nearsited the present one. On the basis of archaeo-stratigraphical data, the floor level of buildings in Roman times (1st century B.C.) can be located at a significant lower height than the present one, which approximates the present sea level. At least three transgressive-regressive events can be reconstructed and dated to the period between the end of the 1st century B.C. and the end of the 3th century A.D. The associated littoral sediments, which, on the basis of macroscopical and sedimentological analyses, can be ascribed to a beach environment, indicate a progressive sea-level rise probably related to a phase of gradual climatic amelioration started about 2200 years BP. As a consequence of these events, a progressive deterioration of drainage conditions and a successive important aggradation of the littoral occurred. The presence of a pumice layer, which is interbedded with the analysed littoral deposits, and can be attributed to the Vesuvius eruption of 79 A.D., allowed for a more accurate definition of the chrono-strat-igraphical situation.